Have racial disparities in home dialysis utilization changed over time?

Objectives: The Medicare end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) prospective payment system (PPS) for maintenance dialysis, implemented in 2011, resulted in modestly increased access to both home-based peritoneal dialysis (PD) and home hemodialysis (HHD) treatment modalities, but it is unclear whether regional disparities in home dialysis (PD and HHD) were affected. We compared regional home dialysis use by White and non-White individuals over time.

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study of dialysis facilities offering home dialysis in 2006-2016 and of 1,098,579 patients with prevalent ESKD in 2006-2016.

Methods: We compared hospital referral region (HRR) utilization rates of home dialysis between White and non-White patients over time using a generalized estimating equation model with a negative binomial distribution adjusting for regional characteristics.

Results: The mean number of facilities offering home dialysis operating in each HRR increased from 15.6 in 2006 to 22.1 in 2016. Observed mean HRR home dialysis rates increased overall, but White patients maintained greater home dialysis use than non-White patients: 19.7% in 2006 and 26.2% in 2016 among White patients vs 13.0% in 2006 and 17.8% in 2016 among non-White patients. In adjusted analysis, there was no evidence of changes in White/non-White disparities in home dialysis use over time (P = .84) or after the Medicare ESKD PPS in 2011 (incidence rate ratio, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.92-1.02; P = .29).

Conclusions: Even after modest increases in dialysis facility availability and patient utilization after the implementation of the Medicare ESKD PPS in 2011, significant racial disparities in home dialysis remain.